Cusack on Bitten by the Rest Records

The good dudes from Cusack sent me another one of their singles after their I reviewed their split with laser geyser a little while back, relistening to "prayer for the weak", it still gets me. I'm still in shock when I realize anyone reads this mess and secondly that these guys are from Italy and sadly won't be playing around here anytime soon.
Cusack, as a band name, still strikes me as funny, but then again, this cover of sweet boys could easily have given him a run for his money back in the Say Anything days. It also says a lot about their sound, no nonsense, straight ahead post-hardcore in the professionally produced vein of Hot Snakes. This isn't a fashion show, they're focused on this sound, and are damn good at it. I must have listened to Automatic Midnight and Suicide Invoice a million times, like At the Drive in, they had an energy and sheer force that would literally keep me up sometimes. Cusack finds that same sweet spot, a golden riff and melody combined with that powerful lead vocal that always seems to deserve another spin.

Holy wood on the A-Side, (that's not a typo) they get right down to business finding one of those perfect power punk melodies. These guys really have this sound down, and every crunch of the guitar is recorded perfectly. The vocals have got a little bit of that Jello Biafra delivery, a little bit of vibrato in there and Rick Froberg's serious deep yell.
The layers of guitars working with each other and completely solid drumming, it also is taking me back to Sparta, when that rock formula is elevated by a group of guys dedicated to this craft of writing the most head bobbing song possible.

The B-side Operation Planet X, keeps changing on you, they find little pockets of rhythm and then switch it up, with those great starts and stops out of nowhere. The vocals are real hoarse on this one as he's giving it all up. Not as fist pumping melodic as the A-Side but that's probably just because I can't keep up. It's fast and bordering on hardcore...they can go from that almost too pop anthemic A-Side to bringing it back to older schools of hardcore. Could it be any closer to the Hot Snakes aesthetic? No...it's dead on.

Bitten by the rest Records seem to have that great punk DIY attitute, helping out bands, creating a mini scene of zine's and shows and records that should really spring up everywhere. If nothing else, god bless the internet for getting like minded people like this together with other mini scene's all over to press records and produce for the art of it. I swear if I win the lottery I'll start an endowment to pass out money no strings attached to projects/labels like this. But you can start by sending a contribution of 5 euros to Cusack's big cartel page, or ask those distro's that carry said imports.